Depiction of Hell from the Divina Commedia: Codex Altonensis
On the page directly preceding the title page in the Divine Comedy manuscript, a full-page circular diagram is shown representing Dante’s depiction of Hell, Dante’s first stop along his epic journey across multiple spiritual realms. Outlined with a thin red line, this large circular diagram is eyeball-like: mostly white, but a small dark circle in the center. Around the dark circle, ten concentric circles of Italian writing expand outward, creating an illusion that one must descend to reach the darkness. This illusion of descension is significant in that Lucifer alone occupies the space at “the lowest and narrowest point of the universe” which is “the greatest distance from God.” Depicting Hell as a set of circles heading downward to the figure of Satan draws heavily on cosmographical charts with concentric circles showing the earth, "terra", in the center. Satan’s head and upper body is shown in frontal view within the dark circle at the center of the page, like an icon. Satan is depicted as a hairy monster with three faces and taloned wings on either side of its human-like abdomen. Each of Satan’s blood-smeared faces is in the middle of consuming naked human bodies, which drip with blood and are labeled with Italian names. The faces on either side are eating the human bodies leg-first, so that the humans’ arms and screaming heads drape out of its mouths. Satan’s middle face has completely engulfed the top-half of a human, and its arms hold the remaining legs steady as it stuffs the human’s waist into its mouth. Despite being mostly consumed, the human’s feet still brace against the demon’s chest in resistance. Satan’s two visible eyes face forward to the viewer, and its expressions seems to frown and scream. Dante and Virgil are portrayed in two places, both outside but touching the circular diagram. In the upper left corner, Virgil is shown bringing Dante into a dark arched doorway, presumably leading down to Hell. In the lower left, Dante and Virgil are shown sliding on their bellies out the mouth of a tube, toward a small blue circle in the corner of the page. The portrayal of Dante and Virgil together in two different moments on the page is characteristic of the medieval illustration style of demonstrating moments occurring in more than one space and time within one image. The page is slightly transparent, so the large blue illustration on the other side of the page shows through slightly. Ella Stack 22’
Christianeum (Hamburg-Altona, Hamburg, Germany) Bibliothek Manuscript Codex Altonensis
Dante Alighieri, Hans. Haupt, Hans Ludwig Scheel, and Bernhard. Degenhart. Divina commedia : Codex Altonensis Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1965.
Special Collections, Carleton College, Northfield, MN
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Special Collections (Folio) (PQ4301 .A1 1965)